kidney transplant– where a healthy kidney is removed from a living or recently deceased donor and implanted into someone with kidney failure

In some cases of ADPKD in adults (where chronic kidney disease is advanced and progressing rapidly), a medication called tolvaptan can be used to slow down the formation of cysts and protect kidney function.

Outlook

The outlook for ADPKD is highly variable. Some people experience kidney failure soon after the condition is diagnosed, whereas others may live the rest of their life with their kidneys working relatively well.

On average, around half of people with ADPKD require treatment for kidney failure by the time they're 60.

As well as kidney failure, ADPKD can also cause a number of other potentially serious problems, such as heart attacks and strokes caused by high blood pressure, or bleeding on the brain (subarachnoid haemorrhage) caused by a bulge in the wall of a blood vessel in the brain (brain aneurysm).